Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:[#Job 2:11]

²“How long will you speak these things,

and the words of your mouth be like a strong wind?

³Does God pervert judgment?

Or does the Almighty pervert justice?

⁴If your children sinned against Him,[#Job 1:5]

He cast them away for their transgression.

⁵If you yourself would seek God earnestly,

and seek favor from the Almighty,

⁶if you were pure and upright,

surely now He would rouse Himself on your behalf,

and He would prosper your righteous dwelling.

⁷Though your beginning was small,

your end will increase greatly.

⁸“Please, ask the former generation,

and prepare yourself for what their fathers searched out;

⁹for we were born but yesterday and know nothing,[#Ge 47:9]

because our days on earth are a shadow.

¹⁰Will they not teach you, and tell you,

and bring forth words out of their heart?

¹¹Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh?

Can the reed grow without water?

¹²While it is yet green and not cut down,

it withers before any other plant.

¹³So are the paths of all who forget God;

and the hypocrite’s hope will perish,

¹⁴whose confidence will be cut off,

and whose trust will be a spider’s web.

¹⁵He will lean upon his house, but it will not stand;[#Job 27:18]

he will hold it fast, but it will not endure.

¹⁶He is green before the sun,

and his branch shoots forth in his garden.

¹⁷His roots are wrapped around the rock heap,

and he sees the place of stones.

¹⁸If he is uprooted from his place,

then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’

¹⁹Behold, this is the joy of his way,

and out of the ground others will grow.

²⁰“Surely, God will not cast away a perfect man,[#Job 4:7]

nor will He strengthen the evildoers,

²¹until He fills your mouth with laughing,[#Ge 21:6; Ps 126:2]

and your lips with rejoicing.

²²Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,[#Ps 35:26; 132:18]

and the dwelling place of the wicked will come to nothing.”